Manhattan Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Schedule an appointment
  • Home
  • Teletherapy
  • Affiliated Therapists
  • Problems Treated
    • Anxiety
    • Panic Attacks
    • Insomnia
    • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
    • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
      • POCD: Pedophilic OCD
      • HOCD – “Gay OCD”
      • Harm OCD
      • Hit and Run OCD
      • Existential OCD
    • Depression
    • Social Anxiety
    • Health Anxiety
    • Trichotillomania
    • Dermatillomania (Skin Picking)
  • Resources
    • What is CBT?
    • How to Get Started with CBT
    • What Is Mindfulness?
    • Worksheets
    • Out-of-state Resources
  • Training
    • The MCCBT externship
    • The MCCBT Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Mental Health Blog
  • Contact us
Home » Mental Health Blog » Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?

Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?

January 31, 2022 by Justin Arocho, Ph.D.

can anxiety cause you to feel dizzy?

Feeling Dizzy

Dizziness is both common and uncomfortable. When you experience dizziness, you might feel lightheaded, woozy, or unsteady. This is not the same as feeling as though things are spinning or moving, which is called vertigo. The terms dizziness and vertigo are often treated as though they are the same sensations, but they are different. Dizziness refers to any feeling of lightheadedness or like your balance is off. Vertigo, on the other hand, is uniquely a spinning sensation, as if you or your surroundings are moving.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, about half of all adults see their healthcare providers at some point for concerns about dizziness. Fortunately, dizzy spells are typically temporary, and rarely the sign of a serious medical condition.

Causes of Dizziness

But what causes dizziness? Dizziness can have many different causes, including:

  • Changes in body position (such as sitting up quickly)
  • Substance use
  • Medication side effects
  • Overheating and dehydration
  • Low blood sugar
  • Medical conditions that affect the inner ear
  • Other medical conditions (e.g., vision, cardiovascular, neurological conditions)
  • Anxiety

The Link Between Anxiety and Dizziness

It may be surprising to learn that anxiety can be a cause of dizziness. The reason anxiety can cause dizziness involves the “fight-or-flight response.”

When you sense a threat, the fight-or-flight system is triggered. This leads to a number of physiological changes that prepare your body to escape from danger. Although these changes evolved to help us survive, they also feel pretty uncomfortable (especially if we don’t see any obvious danger). One of those uncomfortable sensations is dizziness. The fight-or-flight response makes breathing get faster and shallower, which is great for running to escape a threat. It also leads to hyperventilation –your body is taking in oxygen faster than it can use it up, and expelling carbon dioxide faster than it’s produced. This imbalance in the gases in your bloodstream can make you feel dizzy.

But just as anxiety can cause dizziness, dizziness can also increase anxiety. If something makes you dizzy, and particularly if the dizziness catches you off guard or makes you worried, it can increase feelings of anxiety and fear. In fact, this chain of events can contribute to panic attacks.

How Anxiety Prolongs Dizziness Over Time

Ongoing or long-lasting dizziness may be caused by anxiety, and anxiety about dizziness can make the dizziness even worse. When something makes you anxious, it’s natural to start paying it more attention and focusing on it. But anxiously paying attention to sensations in your body can make it easier to feel like a feared sensation is present. For example, if you’re anxious about dizziness and subtly scanning your body for signs of feeling dizzy, you may actually bring on more anxiety and dizzy spells. Because anxiety and dizziness are linked, they can reinforce one another in a feedback loop.

CBT Treatment for Anxiety and Dizziness

Given the list above of the many things that can cause dizziness, it’s important to first see a physician to make sure your dizziness isn’t due to a medical condition.

If your dizziness doesn’t seem to have a medical cause, or treating any medical conditions doesn’t treat your dizziness fully, treatment for anxiety might be helpful.

In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), clinicians help patients learn and practice a variety of skills for improving mood and wellbeing. CBT uses several proven tools to treat anxiety and dizziness, including:

  • Changing your thought process
  • Altering your responses to feeling dizzy, which can help reduce anxiety
  • Helping you become less reactive to uncomfortable bodily sensations like dizziness

When used together, these CBT techniques can break the cycle that keeps anxiety and dizziness going. Working with a CBT therapist can help you find some relief from these challenging issues.

Contact Us

Related posts from manhattanCBT.com:

Filed Under: Anxiety, Panic attacks Tagged With: anxiety

Manhattan Center for CBT

Stay up to date with the Manhattan Center for CBT!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 351 other subscribers

Categories

  • Addiction
  • American mental healthcare
  • Anxiety
  • Cancer
  • Career
  • Cognitive-behavioral therapy
  • Coronavirus
  • DBT
  • Depression
  • Eating disorders
  • Evidence-based treatment
  • Featured
  • Insomnia
  • Kids and teens
  • Mindfulness and meditation
  • OCD
  • Panic attacks
  • PTSD
  • Social Anxiety

Contact Information

Manhattan Center for
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
315 Madison Avenue, Suite #806
New York, NY 10017 (map)
1-646-863-4225
https://www.manhattancbt.com

Copyright © 2022 Manhattan Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy/Psychology, PLLC, d.b.a. the Manhattan Center for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy & Paul B. Greene, Ph.D. except where otherwise noted.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @anxietyocd

Recent Posts

  • Relationship Anxiety: How to Spot the Signs, and How to Manage It
  • Know the Important Facts About Emetophobia — the Fear of Vomiting
  • How to Be Kind to Yourself During Mindfulness Meditation
  • Anxiety and Difficulty Swallowing
  • All-or-Nothing Thinking: Examples and How It Causes Depression and Anxiety
  • What Are Intrusive Thoughts?
  • OCD
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Social Anxiety
  • Insomnia
  • Trichotillomania
  • Mindfulness
  • Panic Attacks